Prince of Persia Game Video Used To Sell Movie

There are plenty of video game movies coming out over the next couple of years and oddly enough, none of them are being directed by Uwe Boll. Some projects like World of Warcraft and Call of Duty are making progress with their adaptions; others like Asteroids are merely in the early development stages. One that is almost finished shooting is Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. While a few stills from the film have been released, there has yet to be a teaser trailer.

However, Prince of Persia creator Jordan Mechner and writer John August have released what they call a ”pitch trailer”. Essentially, when they were trying to pitch the idea of making Prince of Persia into a movie, they came up with a unique way to convince the studios that the game would translate well into a big screen adaptation. Instead of the usual storyboards and concept art, they went and grabbed some of the more exciting scenes from the game itself and edited together a trailer to help pitch their idea. Watch it below:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IhFf05hYz8

It must have worked because Jerry Bruckheimer and Disney took the bait, bought the rights and hired Mike Newell (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) to direct Jake Gyllenhaal as Prince Dastan. Somewhere along the way they also convinced Alfred Molina (Sheik Amar) and Sir Ben Kingsley (Nizam) to join the cast (although I’m sure Disney had some help from more than one Benjamin Franklin.)

You’ll notice that a lot of some crucial elements from the game are missing (freezing, monstrous sand beasts, and such)and that was intentional on the part of Mechner and August. They wanted to sell the idea based on what the studios like the most: action, adventure, romance and marketability to children everywhere.

That last part is majorly important because with the recent acquisition of Marvel by Disney to help them tap into the male teen market, video games are a natural progression into that same market. I wouldn’t doubt if we see some Prince Dastan park characters walking around Disney World.

What do you think about Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time as a movie and would you pose with Prince Dastan for a picture outside of Tomorrowland?